Interesting Links for 25-04-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Diversity appears to have almost no effect on team performance. (Which means there's no reason not to be diverse, of course)

(tags:diversity performance work psychology )

2. Edinburgh Bus Station's owner could throw them out.

(tags:edinburgh buses transport )

3. "My Dinner With Billionaire Marc Andreessen" (an interesting peek behind the curtain

(tags:inequality wealth society )

4. The cycling revolution in Paris continues: Bicycle use now exceeds car use

(tags:Paris bicycles transport )

Comments

[nancylebov]

1. It also means that one of the arguments for diversity-- that it will improve performance-- is weak. If the study generalizes, diversity is neutral, and just a matter of decency.

[andrewducker]

I don't think most indecent people were interested in diversity anyway.

[nancylebov]

1. What I see is people who assume that if something is moral, it must be good in all respects, like vegans who say that their diet must be the best for everyone.

Kudos to the researchers for looking into this, though I wouldn't see their actual article.

I still have no certainly about what effect diversity has on team performance.

[armiphlage]

As a new manager who just hired his first employee, diversity also increases the pool of qualified candidates. I could have just looked at applications from those with Canadian education or experience (it's unethical, but still legal in our province to discriminate on such grounds), but I didn't filter on that. I'm very pleased with how our new hire is turning out, and I would have missed out on his expertise if I had used those filters.

[nancylebov]

That was one of my hypotheses for why diversity would help-- a larger candidate pool. Alternate hypothesis: in large organization, hiring is fairly random, so the larger candidate pool doesn't help.

[bens_dad]

Performance can improve with practice. If the norm has been non-diverse, diverse teams may improve as everyone has more practice working in and with them.

Performance or Ability ?

[bens_dad]

Was the aim of diversity just to allow the teams do the same things better ?
I would hope it was to enable them to do things the non-diverse team could not do ?

Re: Performance or Ability ?

[andrewducker]

What kind of thing are you thinking of?

Re: Performance or Ability ?

[bens_dad]

Design products and services that work for people who aren't affluent able-bodied white men and that fit their lives ?

(Non-smart) phones and calculators with bigger screens and buttons. Hair and beauty products for non-white skinned people. Town planning not centred around cars. ...

But asking a middle-aged middle-class white man in reasonable health isn't likely to get you the best answers.

Re: Performance or Ability ?

[nancylebov]

That makes sense for some businesses, but not if they're selling something like nuts and bolts.

Re: Performance or Ability ?

[andrewducker]

Completely agree that you should understand your customers' needs. And if you have regular (or constant) customers who are unusual in some respect then having some of them on the team will help.

[redbird]

4. What startled me is that most trips in Paris are made, not by bike, automobile, or mass transit, but on foot. According to this article, in the past few years the number of trips by bicycle has increased, and the number of trips by car decreased by about the same amount, but those two modes add up to about 16% of travel in the city.

[andrewducker]

Which would indicate that Paris is set up so that people can get to most of the things they need without going very far. (Which is my experience from my last trip there)

[anef]

15 minute city?

[hairyears]

Very much so, within the Périphérique, with modern housing developments designed to replicate the social nucleation of 'Old Paris' squares and random corners that become miniature town and village centres.

[andrewducker]

Jane, who lived there for a year, says that you would definitely have a bakery and a greengrocer within that walking time. And almost certainly a corner shop equivalent.

She lived incredibly centrally, and says that even so on top of that there was a decent supermarket within a 25 minute walk.

[bens_dad]

2. Don't they need planning permission to change a bus station into housing ?

How is Edinburgh for city-centre housing ? It seems a pity that you can have either houses or a bus station.

[andrewducker]

Edinburgh has a housing emergency: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/13844/edinburgh-declares-a-housing-emergency

I think the council could possibly do a forced purchase of the bus station, but that would cost a *lot*. Preventing a company from building housing where there is an emergency need for housing would be trickier, as the council has rules it has to follow about denying things "Because it feels like it."

[hairyears]

I thought planning law allowed the local authority to decree 'No Change Of Use' on all kinds of land and buildings that provide essential functions to the local community and wider population.

[andrewducker]

It might do, I'm not an expert. There'd almost certainly be a big court case if that happened though.

I guess we'll see what comes out of it!